UN News Today 29 October 2026 |

Emergency food kits help Haitians facing growing hunger

In Haiti, more than 5.9 million people face ever higher food insecurity, amid a deepening hunger crisis driven by violent insecurity and this year’s Super El Niño.

That’s the warning from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which cited latest assessments indicating that the island nation has one of the highest levels of hunger in the world today, at more than one in two people.

Rein Paulsen is the agency’s Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience: 

“The issues around violence are impacting people’s access to markets, access to their land, access to agricultural inputs. And then in addition to this, of course we have a very, very strong El Niño phenomenon, which is impacting many parts of the world. It’s impacting the Caribbean, and for Haiti this means much drier conditions than normal and higher temperatures.”

This year’s strong El Niño is expected to contribute to crop losses and delayed planting, pushing acute food insecurity in Haiti to even more critical levels next year.

At the same time, inflation running at approximately 17 per cent is eroding purchasing power and reducing households’ access to sufficient and diversified food.

To help, FAO offers emergency assistance kits that include seeds, poultry and ducks, but also goats and other animals. These help farmers to start generating milk and eggs to sell at market immediately and to have access to food to sustain their families.

Yemen: Vital medical supplies reach Taiz City, access challenges remain

To Yemen, where the UN World Health Organization, WHO, reports that it has delivered trauma and emergency surgery kits to hospitals facing acute shortages in Taiz City, which remains almost entirely surrounded by Houthi forces.

The lifesaving shipment reached the city at the weekend and has been shared among several facilities, according to a WHO update on Wednesday.

The agency noted that movement restrictions in Taiz City have forced community midwives to stop working and that access to Taiz province remains restricted from Government-controlled Aden, and to the West coast. 

WHO highlighted acute shortages of medicines, fuel and water in Taiz; it also warned of an increased risk of disease outbreaks as waste management has been disrupted and the city’s dumps are too dangerous to access because of ongoing conflict. 

Further north, in Marib governorate, primary healthcare is on the “verge of collapse” because of funding cuts. Only six out of 31 mobile medical teams are still operational and 15 health facilities have stopped functioning altogether.

“This leaves internally displaced people with very limited access to primary care” in Marib which has the highest number of deaths per casualty, WHO said.

Afghanistan opium production jumps fivefold as farmers evade Taliban restrictions: UNODC

Opium production in Afghanistan has risen fivefold in a year; it’s the first significant increase since the Taliban banned poppy cultivation in 2022.

In a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) the total area planted with opium poppy is now more than 43,000 hectares. 

Estimated production has risen from about 300 tonnes to just under 1,500.

Both figures remain well below levels before the ban.

For decades, Afghanistan was the world’s biggest source of illicit opium, accounting for around 80 per cent of global supply.

The de facto authorities who seized power in 2021 say that they have eradicated 22,000 hectares of poppy fields this year

But UNODC said many farmers are evading the ban by hiding small plots of poppies within cereal fields or inside walled compounds. 

The large increase shows how hard it is to end illicit opium cultivation when “poor farmers have no alternatives to feed their families,” said UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma.

She urged the Taliban to work with the international community to support farming communities by investing in livelihoods, farm infrastructure and access to markets.

Daniel Johnson, UN News